


and seedlings will sprout

by kakashifluff (hyliaslight)



Series: you are the storm and the shelter [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Genin Era, Light Angst, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Chuunin Exams, Pre-Time Skip, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2020-06-30 12:46:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19853473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyliaslight/pseuds/kakashifluff
Summary: Misaki's not feeling all that well lately. She'll be better in a few days though...right?





	1. Chapter 1

Misaki was fine.

Sure, she felt a little more achey than usual. It happened. Maybe she woke up on the wrong side of the bed, or pulled something during training, or trained with Gai _period_. The same thing could be said for the unusual tiredness, and the occasional stomach cramps. Maybe less so for the cramps—but she probably just started exercising too soon after lunch.

It would pass. It was fine.

It was not fine when she was hunched over in the bathroom, emptying her guts into the toilet at almost 4 in the morning.

_Probably food poisoning_ , she thought with distaste, but then, she’d eaten the same dinner as her husband and _he_ seemed to be just peachy. Maybe she was coming down with something. She hadn’t been sick in a long time, maybe she was just overdue?

Something about the idea prompted a weird sense of deja vu, but she didn’t understand why. Another wave of nausea came over her and she abandoned that line of thought quickly. She was exhausted and maybe sick and it probably wasn’t that important anyway.

Misaki rinsed her mouth out and brushed her teeth twice over before feeling steady enough to crawl back into bed and curl up beside Kakashi. It was a little too hot for her to feel fully comfortable, despite the recent mild weather and early hour, but she didn’t want to move. She fell into an uneasy sleep for a few more hours until he had to get up to meet his team.

“Don’t goooo,” she whined tiredly, curling around his arm as soon as his shifting startled her out of her dozing. His free hand settled on her forehead.

“Are you sick?” he asked. She could hear the frown in his voice.

“Maybe. Probably,” she mumbled, and let go of his arm with a resigned sigh. “You’re already late to meet them, aren’t you?”

“I am. I’d stay longer if I wasn’t,” he said. He brushed his fingers through her hair.

“Don’t do that, I’m probably all gross and sweaty,” Misaki said.

“Maa, maa, I’ve had my hands in worse,” he said.

She snorted. “Was that supposed to be comforting? What were you even trying to imply with that?”

“Nothing in particular, so you’re free to imagine whatever you want.” He gave her a sunny, closed-eye, absolutely shit-eating smile. “I can make you breakfast before I leave.”

Suddenly realizing how hungry she was, Misaki nodded fervently. “Yes, please,” she said. Kakashi was absolutely the better cook of the two of them, though they were both equally lazy about actually doing so seriously. There was absolutely no way she would ever turn down his offer to cook when he didn’t have to.

Unfortunately, the smell of cooking eggs wafting in from the kitchen made her sick to her stomach all over again.

Misaki stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom as fast as her wobbly legs would carry her. The sound of her retching drowned out Kakashi pulling the pan off the stove and walking to the bathroom, but she did notice it when he knelt next to her and pulled her hair back from her face.

“You’re definitely sick,” he said. She shot him a weak glare over her shoulder before coughing into the toilet again.

Eventually Kakashi really did have to leave, or else risk missing training entirely. Misaki had waved off his offer to do just that, because she wasn’t _dying_ or anything, she’d be fine alone for at least a few hours. He’d looked entirely too skeptical for her tastes, though he raised his hands placatingly when she threatened the sanctity of his porn.

Instead of leaving her entirely to her own devices when he left, though, he’d summoned Bisuke to keep her company—never mind that she had her own perfectly competent (and cuddly) summons she could call on.

“You’re not supposed to waste chakra while sick,” he’d shrugged, and she’d just given it up as a lost cause.

And then apparently he’d ‘run into’ one of her old genin teammates on the way to the training grounds and ‘just mentioned she was feeling under the weather’ and then Itsuki had ‘just decided to pop over’ with some food that hopefully wouldn’t make her puke any more than she already had.

Well, okay, she could believe that Itsuki would come over of his own free will. He was nice like that, even if he didn’t look it. But there was no way he heard about her predicament by accident.

“This is the worst,” Misaki said miserably to Itsuki and Bisuke both. She could _maybe_ admit, at least to herself, that if nothing else it was nice to have people around to complain to. “I hate being sick.”

Bisuke whuffed and pressed his head into her hand for a petting while Itsuki simply nodded solemnly in response, which was how she knew he was just humoring her drama. Sure he _seemed_ to be nothing but a loner, quiet and gloomy in temperament, just like he had ever since they were kids, but there was a reason they still talked. One didn’t spend years on a team without some kind of closeness, and one definitely didn’t get out of being on a team with an Inuzuka for a sensei without at least _some_ sense of humor. Or personality.

“Don’t tell Sayuri, she’ll just come by to laugh at me,” she added, scratching Bisuke behind the ear. “Kakashi _cooked_ and I couldn’t even be in the same room. That’s just so unfair.”

There—the corners of his lips ticked up. That was basically the same as laughing at her out loud, for Itsuki. _Rude._ She pouted at him.

“You should probably stop by the hospital,” he said when she let out the third or fourth harsh sigh in the last half hour. Misaki recoiled from the idea automatically, slumping over the table.

“That’s probably not necessary,” she mumbled.

“I could go with you.”

“That’s even less necessary.” She could go to the hospital by herself. She just didn’t _want_ to.

“Of course, I forgot, you jounin have that thing about the hospital,” Itsuki said, shaking his head in amusement. Misaki made a face at him.

“It’s not because I’m a jounin,” she said defensively, and then added, “Maybe I’m a jounin _because_ I have that thing about the hospital.”

“I can believe that,” Itsuki conceded with a small smile. He didn’t insist, nor did he drag her to the hospital himself, because that wasn’t his way. But after he left, and the queasy feeling still hadn’t really gone away, she admitted to herself that maybe she should go.

Maybe in the next couple days, anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

It ended up being more like a week before Misaki finally dragged herself to the hospital. Some days she’d felt a little less sick than before, so she’d justified it to both Kakashi and herself that she was getting better and didn’t need to see a doctor. But it never went away entirely, so eventually she caved and just went. The decision definitely didn’t have anything to do with her getting sick of not being able to eat perfectly good food. Definitely.

Despite being there for illness instead of an injury, being a jounin meant that Misaki was passed off to a medic-nin at the very beginning. It was important for the village’s elite to always be in top condition, so even though non-terminal illnesses were usually assigned to doctors who didn’t practice medical ninjutsu, jounin were a different story. The medic-nin used a diagnostic jutsu on her while Misaki told her the symptoms.

The medic’s eyebrows rose more and more the longer the jutsu went on. “When was the last time you had your period?” she asked.

“Uh...” Misaki paused and thought back on it. “A couple...months ago? Huh.”

So that was why the thought of being _overdue_ had given her a funny feeling.

The medic gave her a flat look. “Congratulations, Hatake-san,” she said, sitting back and cancelling the jutsu. “You’re not ill. You’re pregnant.”

Oh.

 _Oh_.

Diagnosis received, Misaki wandered home in a daze.

Pregnant. She couldn’t really believe it.

Well, in hindsight, it was _incredibly_ obvious. Almost embarrassingly so, even, for an elite kunoichi who was supposed to be aware and in control of her body at all times, but…well. She had never been very good at that part. The part she had excelled at had been the ability to ignore even the most glaring warning signs and, as the kanji for shinobi said, _endure_.

Also, she and Kakashi had always used protection. And they’d never really talked about kids. They hadn’t even been married a full year at this point, it just wasn’t something that came up.

She couldn’t help imagining it now, though. A baby with Kakashi’s silver hair and dark eyes. A little boy, maybe, toddling around after all the ninken and ninneko that came and went in their home, or a little girl to tell exciting stories to. It wasn’t really all that surprising to discover that Misaki really, really liked the idea.

But…she brushed a hand against her stomach, feeling a queasiness of a different kind wash over her.

There was something growing inside of her. Something that had the potential to be a whole different person. And as pretty a thought as it was, of a future child who could be part of her and part of Kakashi, in the more immediate future it only meant significant changes to her body, and _that_ thought was a discomfiting one.

Misaki was a ninja like any other, yes, and her body was her most important weapon. More than that, though, she was afraid of what she might _feel_ if she lost the sense of agency over herself. Being sent to war as a child hadn’t exactly been great for her sense of either self or existence in general.

She wasn’t sure if she could stand months and months of feeling like her body wasn’t entirely her own.

(And yet at the same time, she… _wanted_.)

She needed to talk to someone about this. And she knew that someone had to be Kakashi. Of course it did. Even if the decision was ultimately hers, because it was her body, this...thing, this maybe-baby, it would be his kid too. It wouldn’t be fair to talk to anyone else first. They were partners.

That didn’t stop her from feeling a nervous fluttering in her stomach when she finally made it back to the front door of their apartment. Misaki took one deep breath, then another, and stepped inside. “I’m home,” she called out.

“Welcome home,” Kakashi called back from further inside. She was glad to see he’d already finished training with Team 7 for the day, though she carefully held her breath as she joined him in the kitchen. Thankfully, he was only cutting up ingredients and hadn’t started actually cooking anything yet, so there weren’t too many smells to potentially bother her. She let out a slow breath and wound her arms around Kakashi’s waist.

“I went to the hospital today,” Misaki mumbled into his back. He stilled, but didn’t try to turn around. “There’s good news and...new news, I guess.”

“Oh?”

“The good news is I’m not sick, exactly,” she said. “The other news is...um.”

The words stuck in her mouth. She was afraid to say them out loud because...because she wasn’t sure how she would feel about them when she did. And she wasn’t sure how Kakashi would feel about them either. She wasn’t sure how she _wanted_ him to feel about them.

Kakashi put the knife down on the cutting board and washed his hands quickly at the sink right beside it. He unwrapped Misaki’s arms enough to turn around and face her, cupping her face in his hands and searching her expression. “What is it?” he asked quietly.

Misaki closed her eyes. “Kakashi,” she said. “I’m pregnant.”

Silence. She opened her eyes again and met Kakashi’s slightly wide-eyed gaze. For several long moments, they just looked at each other.

“Do you want to keep it?” he asked eventually.

She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know,” she said.

They spent the next few hours decidedly not talking about it. Both needed the time to process the news. Misaki helped Kakashi finish fixing dinner, they ate, and then they climbed into bed much earlier than usual.

His heartbeat was steady under where her ear was pressed to his chest, his arms wrapped tightly around her. She sighed.

“Do _you_ want to keep it?” she whispered.

Kakashi’s breathing pattern didn’t change, but Misaki knew the question surprised him. He didn’t answer for several moments. “I think the question needs to be more specific than that,” he said at last.

She shifted so that she could prop herself up on her elbow to get a better look at his face. Was he implying what she thought he was implying? About not just _if_ , but—

“We never talked about whether we even want kids, let alone _when_ ,” she said quietly.

A slow breath. “I never really thought about it. Sometimes I still can’t believe—“

He didn’t finish the sentence, but she could hear the possibilities in her head. _That I’m still alive. That we have this at all. That I haven’t lost you somehow, and that it isn’t my fault._

Kakashi had always been a survivor, but there had been many, many times when Misaki had wondered about that, had thought that maybe he didn’t want to be. For as long as she’d known him he hadn’t talked much about his old genin team or his father, but what he did say, and when he said it, had told her a lot by itself.

It was only after he finally passed Team 7 that Kakashi had really opened up any more about that part of his life.

“And now?” she had to ask.

“And now I’m thinking about it,” he said, which was more telling than anything else.

“Me too,” Misaki said softly. “I...me too.”

For a long while, they just breathed in the darkness of their bedroom, looking at each other. Then Misaki lay back down and tucked herself as tight as possible into Kakashi’s arms. It took them a long time to fall asleep that night.

The next day, by silent agreement, the couple left the apartment early and made their way to the Memorial Stone.

 _Hello, Mariko-sensei, Masamune_ , Misaki thought, brushing her fingers briefly across the names etched into the stone before retreating just slightly. _Do I have some news for you._

She sat cross-legged on the ground and pulled out the sheets of scrap paper she’d brought to keep her hands occupied. There weren’t very many origami shapes she could do, but the paper crane was easy and had been engrained in her muscle memory for years.

While Kakashi had his own conversations with his ghosts, she wondered what Inuzuka Mariko would say if she were still around for Misaki to run to for advice. Something along the lines of, _if there is any room for doubt, don’t bother, brat_ , she imagined. Mariko-sensei had been an all-or-nothing kind of woman. And yet—

 _If you are ever gonna do it, though, you might as well do it now_. As she opened the wings of her first crane, she thought she could almost hear the Inuzuka’s low, scratchy voice. _That husband of yours will be in-village more often than not with his team._ True. _You never know when the next injury will be to the uterus, kid_. Also a fair point, in her line of work. _And you’ve already got step one down, though that was probably the most enjoyable part._

That sounded a little _too_ much like Mariko, embarrassingly blunt humor and all, and maybe it was time to scale back her imaginings. Misaki set the paper crane down by her foot and started another one.

Maybe it was a little sad, to be looking for advice from the dead before the living—both of Misaki’s parents were still around, if civilians with little real understanding of how deeply their daughter had been effected by her chosen career path. Her younger sister was both closer and a fellow shinobi, and yet here she was, folding origami cranes before the Memorial Stone instead of talking to anyone else.

Perhaps the truth was that Misaki wasn’t truly looking for advice from a mentor who was years gone. Inuzuka Mariko had been blunt and to the point in a way that Misaki was rarely capable of being, even with herself. Using her sensei’s voice to be honest with herself was certainly not the worst way of dealing with a personal struggle.

She still missed the real Mariko.

By the time Kakashi left for team training again, after placing a brief kiss on the top of Misaki’s head, she’d folded over a dozen more cranes. Then she too walked away shortly after, leaving the cranes behind, because there was reflecting and then there was getting stuck in her own head. She was old enough now to recognize that, even if she wasn’t always able to follow through.


	3. Chapter 3

Something heavy landed on her shoulder as she made her way through the village in search of the breakfast she hadn’t been able to have earlier, thanks to that tricky thing called morning sickness. Misaki didn’t even flinch at the sudden weight, well aware of who it belonged to by now—Hoshi had been with her for over a decade by now, her first ever contracted ninneko, and the the black cat’s chakra signature was as familiar to her (admittedly amateur) sensing ability as Kakashi’s. She continued walking as Hoshi made herself comfortable around her shoulders.

“You smell conflicted,” Hoshi murped, waving her tail in front of her human’s face. Misaki made a face and shrugged lightly. It would figure that a ninneko could suss that out by smell—though that thought gave her pause.

“Wait. Did you _know_?” Misaki said, having to consciously keep her hands away from the vicinity of her abdomen. They were still in public, after all.

“Know what?” Hoshi asked in reply, far too innocently to be genuine.

“Hoshi,” Misaki groaned. “Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t the _others_ say anything?” It wasn’t like Mayu to not make a smug show of knowing something others didn’t, and it definitely wasn’t like Rei to be able to keep a secret at all.

A black tail flicked at her nose. “First we didn’t realize you didn’t know. Then we figured it would be nice for you to get it on your own,” Hoshi said. She paused a moment. “And then it was just funny.”

Misaki made a grab for the cat’s scruff, but Hoshi wasn’t a ninneko for nothing. She sprang lightly first onto the top of Misaki’s head, then onto the canopy of a nearby shop. Misaki narrowed her eyes at her, but didn’t make a move to follow as Hoshi inclined her head with a smile only a cat could make and continued to walk in pace with her from up above. She’d just have to get all three of them back some other time.

Still, she found herself muttering about useless, traitorous fur-balls as they continued to wander through the streets of Konoha. There were plenty of food vendors around, and she eyed each one in contemplation as she passed by, but ultimately none of them struck her fancy. Being pregnant, she reflected with a frustrated sigh, really was inconvenient on every level.

It was early afternoon by the time she finally was drawn towards a specific place, though that was mostly because she heard some very familiar (and very loud) voices in that direction. The sounds led her to, of course, Ichiraku Ramen, where Team Seven had clearly chosen to have lunch together before what was likely to be an afternoon of D-ranks. Misaki smiled and shook her head at the three genin yelling about something or other as she slipped quietly into the seat next to Kakashi on the end. He raised a hand briefly in unspoken greeting, and she leaned over to place a peck on the metal plate of his forehead protector in reply.

It had taken her husband’s students awhile to notice her appearance, long enough for Ichiraku to prepare and serve her a big bowl of her favorite ramen with a side of gyoza—she was hungry, alright?—while she rested her cheek in one hand and watched them bicker among themselves.

She was, quite honestly, very fond of all three of them; they were ridiculously amusing, often well meaning despite their naivety and childish egos (admittedly cuter and more bearable than adult egos), and they were so _good_ for Kakashi. His smiles were more genuine since accepting them into his heart, though the children themselves wouldn’t know that, only aware that their sensei loved to infuriate them.

They were good kids.

She wondered if they’d be interested in being honorary older siblings.

The unbidden thought surprised her, and only Kakashi’s hand slipping into hers under the counter brought her back to the present.Misaki flashed him a small smile and went to take a large bite of her gyoza. When she turned back, Naruto finally noticed her presence.

“Misaki-nee!” he shouted, jumping up from his seat and pointing at her. “When did you get here, dattebayo!”

Misaki swallowed her food along with the laugh that threatened to bubble out of her at his exuberance. “Hmm, I’m not entirely sure.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully, leaning forward so she could see all of them better. “Maybe sometime between you pointing at Sasuke the first time and Sakura yelling at you for talking with your mouth full? I’ve certainly been here long enough to know that all three of you need to work on your situational awareness more,” she teased.

Their sensei wasn’t the only one who loved to infuriate them after all—they just made it so easy.

“Aww, nee-chan!” Naruto groaned. Sakura turned an embarrassed shade of red while Sasuke scowled adorably.

“Aww, Naruto,” she parroted. “Don’t worry, that’s what you still have a sensei for!”

As one, the three kids turned to look dubiously at said sensei, who tilted his head innocently and gave them his sunniest smile in return. Of course, Kakashi’s students had come to know some of his tricks well, so the smile only served to make them suspicious.

And that was when Hoshi finally decided to make her presence known.

The bright-eyed ninneko pounced playfully at the trio, pulling shrieks from all three of them simultaneously. She nipped at Sasuke’s hand, in which a kunai has appeared with impressive speed, easily avoided Naruto’s flailing limbs, and finally flipped Sakura’s long, loose locks into her face as she settled around the now-sneezing girl’s shoulders. This time Misaki couldn’t help bursting into laughter, as always thoroughly entertained by the chaos Team 7 often left in their wake. Hoshi wasn’t normally quite so inclined to playful chaos, that being more typical of Rei while Hoshi was more the type to tease like she had earlier—but just like her summoner the kids seemed to bring out that side of the black cat.

She caught Kakashi’s eyes on her and she shared a warm, fond smile with him while his students—his kids—complained in the background. Misaki was just so happy these days, like every moment of peace and laughter filled her up a little more. Kakashi felt the same way, she just knew, even with all the guilt that still weighed him down. She was loathe to let go of even a second of it. This was such a good thing that they had, and she didn’t want any of it to change.

(Except change had come, and now she was hovering at the edge of something that could make them even happier, only she kept wondering if it was the right time and if they were the right people for it. If _she_ was the right person for it.)

 _But maybe..._ she considered wistfully, once the food had been finished and paid for and Team 7 had bid her goodbye, off for their afternoon D-ranks just as she’d thought. Her eyes drifted to the sky, watching perfectly fluffy clouds roll by.

She needed some advice. Some real advice this time, from a real person, before her mind got stuck running in circles this way. And there was only one person she’d consider going to first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short chapter is short orz but i wanted to get this update out before i post any of my other (many, many other) wip nart fics


	4. Chapter 4

“Have you ever thought about having kids?” Misaki asked as the blood rushed to her head. It was late in the afternoon, nearly sunset, and she was laying on her younger sister’s bed with her torso hanging off the edge so that she could watch Akari sketch on a medium sized canvas. That she wasn’t nauseous right now was a miracle, and she fully intended to take advantage of the reprieve.

“Not really,” Akari said.

“Oh.”

There was a moment of silence as Misaki debated internally how to approach the subject from a different angle.

“I don’t really want to bring a child into a world where I’m always waiting for the next big war,” Akari went on before she could. The image taking shape beneath her hand was starting to look like a face, albeit with one side obscured by flowers and vines. “Sure we’ve technically had a decade of peace, but three major wars in less than a hundred years does not make for good odds going forward.”

“Oh...” Misaki suddenly felt very small as she considered that very logical point. She’d fought in the last war herself, and even her two year stint in ANBU had shown her just what ‘peace’ could mean in a shinobi society.

“I don’t blame other people for wanting or having kids, it’s just not something I think I could do.” Akari set her pencil down and turned around. “Where’s this coming from? Are you and Kakashi trying to get pregnant? I didn’t expect that from him.”

“Uh,” Misaki said. Oh boy. Oh…. _boy_. She heaved herself back up into a sitting position, waiting for the rush to settle before looking at her sister. “You know how I’ve been kinda sick the last few weeks?”

Akari blinked. Then blinked again. “You’re kidding,” she said.

“It was...not planned.” Misaki pressed her lips together and made a face. “We’re trying to decide if we’re going to keep it.”

“And you’re asking me what I think you should do?”

“Uh. Yes?” She shrugged helplessly.

“Saki, I can’t tell you whether you should have a kid or not,” Akari shook her head. “We’re different people.”

“But that’s why I need your perspective.”

Akari gave her a look, then let out a slow breath. “Look, if _you_ want a kid, you’re in a good place in your life for it. As long as you don’t mind taking leave or an in-village position right now, because you can’t be on active duty if you want to do this.”

“The problem is I don’t _know_ what I want,” Misaki burst out, and she was embarrassed to find frustrated tears brimming in her eyes. She scrubbed at them harshly. “I mean, I think I want it, but I—I’m afraid that if we commit to this then we’ll regret it when it’s too late to turn back, and then what? And we only have so much time to _decide_.”

Akari came over to sit beside her and put her arms around Misaki’s shoulders. “Why do you think you’ll regret it?”

“Because—you just explained why it would be a bad idea!”

“Those are _my_ reasons,” the younger kunoichi said firmly. “It’s good to have them in mind, but consider: if everyone stopped having kids because of a possibility of danger, then there wouldn’t be _any_ children in this world. You and Kakashi at least _know_ that you could defend yourselves and a kid if worse comes to worst.” When Misaki couldn’t say anything to that, she continued: “What is it really?”

“Everything is going to change, and you know how I get!” Misaki burst out with a sniffle. “I don’t like change that I can’t control.”

“You don’t like it, but you’ve gotten through it before, and you will again, with or without a kid,” Akari pointed out sensibly. Misaki let out a pained grumble and slumped against her shoulder. “The question is whether this change will be worth it.”

“How am I supposed to know that before it’s even happened?”

“How am _I_ supposed to know that before it’s even happened?” her really, awfully, _stupidly_ sensible little sister retorted.

Misaki didn’t, _couldn’t_ reply to that, and the two of them were left sitting there with their own thoughts until they heard a tap on the window. It was Kakashi, who wiggled his fingers in a wave through the glass while Akari disabled her traps with a flick of chakra.

“I thought I might find you here,” he said as he slipped into the room. “Akari, think I can steal my wife back?”

“No,” Akari replied immediately. She squeezed Misaki tighter. “She was my sister first.”

Misaki laughed weakly and extracted herself from the younger woman’s grip. “Well, she’s not wrong,” she said to Kakashi, who faked a hurt look. “But since I am the one being stolen, I think I get to say yes.”

She turned to Akari and hugged her again, a silent thank you passing between the sisters. Then she waved goodbye and followed Kakashi out the window. Quite some time had clearly passed; they were bathed in the bright, warm hues of the sunset as they hopped from rooftop to rooftop.

Despite all the questions and anxieties that still lingered in the back of her mind, the moment she landed on the tiny balcony of their apartment it felt like a weight lifted from her shoulders. There was just something so comforting about being here, in the privacy of the home she’d made with Kakashi. It was even entirely empty of animal summons still, which was something of a rarity. Misaki heaved out a long sigh and let herself collapse back into the love seat squished in the corner of the room. Kakashi took an extra moment to shed his flak vest and shoes—stopping to pull off Misaki’s as well, for which she flashed him a tired look of gratitude—before settling down beside her and pulling her into his arms.

For a moment Misaki just rested quietly, curled against her husband, breathing him in. Eight years now he’d been in her life, the last four as a romantic partner. Sometimes it felt like it had been far longer, like Kakashi had been with her for her entire life—other times it seemed like no time at all had passed, and they were just as brand new to this whole relationship thing as they were back then. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Kakashi was familiar and home and she knew him, but he still managed to surprise her sometimes.

She waited patiently for him to speak.

“We took a babysitting D-rank,” Kakashi admitted at last. Misaki blinked and looked up at him.

“You…took a babysitting D-rank,” she echoed slowly. Yeah, he definitely still managed to surprise her.

“We do get those from time to time,” he said dryly. She rolled her eyes, because sure, babysitting jobs weren’t _entirely_ uncommon for genin, but they certainly were when a given team consisted of three _unique_ personalities and a jounin sensei equally as notorious for his inappropriate habits as for being one of the most skilled Konoha ninja of his generation. “Thought it might be a good test run.”

Ah. There it was.

The words were spoken airily, with a deliberate casualness, but she caught the underlying implications. It was almost enough to steal her breath away. “How did that go?” she asked, deliberately keeping her own voice light.

“Aa, not _too_ bad,” he shrugged, and she could feel his lips quirking into a small smile where they were pressed against the top of her head. She could just imagine the sort of chaos that Team 7 could manage to get into with a small child in tow, and felt a smile begin to steal across her own lips as well.

“You’ll have to tell me all about it.”

“I definitely thought about what you asked me yesterday.”

“And?” she asked after a pause. Kakashi pulled back just enough to meet her gaze directly. And there he went, surprising her again with the look in his eyes. She almost thought she knew what he was going to say before he said it.

That didn’t mean she didn’t need to hear it come from him. And she knew that _he_ knew that.

“If you asked me again…” Kakashi said quietly. “I wouldn’t say no.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting this with very little sleep and pretty much no editing so don't be surprised if i come back and make some adjustments eventually BUT! yeah here's introducing another of Misaki's very important relationships AKA the one she has with her sister, and then a bit more Kakashi/Misaki (KakaMisa?) stuff AKA the Real Good Stuff


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